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Like well-heeled raccoons, celebrities covet the shiny, the sparkly, the blinged-out. Double-digit carats? Yes, please! Putting precious stones in places they were never meant to be? Let’s do it!

Such is the logic of those stars who seem to buy jewelry based on shock value, not beauty. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries dropped jaws this week when they revealed that he proposed to her with a $2 million, 20.5 carat diamond dazzler. (Who knew carats ran that high?) He shared his motivation for the purchase with People magazine: “I just knew I wanted it to be big!”

Indeed, with the stars, when it comes to jewels, the size of the statement matters. Find out more about Kardashian’s ring and check out the outrageous adornments of four other stars:

Kim Kardashian’s 20.5 Carat Ring

It’s the ring that could create a paparazzi entourage of its own. Designed by Kardashian’s friend, celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz, the reality TV star’s newest accessory includes a 16.5 carat emerald cut center stone flanked by a pair of 2-carat trapezoids. NBA baller Humphries reportedly dished out $2 million for the diamonds, to Kardashian’s delight. “It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she told People. “It’s perfect.”

Mariah Carey’s $12,000 Mommy Necklace

Mariah Carey and self-restraint don’t exactly get along. (Exhibit A: That infamous episode of MTV Cribs.) It makes sense, then, that earlier this month, to celebrate her first Mother’s Day, Carey’s husband, Nick Cannon, went over the top. He bought a $12,000, 4-carat diamond and sapphire necklace from Arasheben (the same jeweler Bieber visited) that spells out the names of the couple’s new twins: Moroccan and Monroe. A bit tacky? Maybe. But it’s a way better gift than a bedazzled Cuisinart.

Kanye West’s Diamond Teeth

Unsatisfied with blingy-Jesus pieces and iced-out watches,Kanye West upped the ante for hip-hop’s bauble brigade last year when he had the bottom row of his teeth taken out and replaced with diamonds. (Really. Permanently. One wonders what his dental hygiene routine is like.) While a dentist doubted that West yanked out his chompers altogether to get the precious metals in his mouth, the rapper may have paid upward of $60,000 for his shinier-than-all-get-out smile. Why? He told Vanity Fair, “I just like diamond teeth, and I didn’t feel like having to take them out all the time.”

Elizabeth Taylor’s Taylor-Burton Diamond

Of course, Hollywood drooled for jewels long before the current crop of stars ran the town. The late Elizabeth Taylor‘s lust for gems is the stuff of legend. One of her

most memorable pieces was the Taylor-Burton diamond, a 69.42 carat pear-shaped diamond that Richard Burton purchased at a 1969 auction for more than $1 million. The diamond was originally set in a ring, but even Taylor couldn’t pull off a rock of that size. She had Cartier refashion it as a necklace and wore it to the Academy Awards in 1970.

But as with Burton, this diamond was not to be Taylor’s forever. Following her first divorce from the actor (they married and divorced twice), Taylor put the diamond up for auction, selling it for a reported $5 million.

The diminutive songstress who played a high school dropout on “Glee” and originated the role of Glinda in “Wicked” is just as comfortable talking about her Christian faith as she is her support for gay rights.

In a recent interview with The Advocate, she explained how she can hold both dear to her heart.

“I read my Bible and I pray and all of that. I really do,” she told the gay-interest publication. “But at the same time, I don’t think being gay is a sin. Period.”

Chenoweth, 43, who grew up in Oklahoma’s Bible belt, cited her grandmother as inspiration.

“My [gay] best friend — I’ve talked about him many times — his name’s Denny. I asked my Grandma Chenoweth, ‘How can it be that he’s going to hell? I just don’t think that correct.’ And she said, ‘Well, Kris, I read the Bible like I eat fish: I take the meat, and it serves me well, but I don’t choke on the bone.’

Asked how she would respond to people who cite their Christian beliefs as the basis for discrimination against gays, she said with a laugh, “I would ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ It sounds so cliché and Pollyannaish, but I have a feeling if he were on the earth today, he wouldn’t be walking around saying, “You’re going to hell” and “You’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong.” I think he’d be accepting and loving.”

Using her tiny stature as an example, she said, “What would I do if it was a sin to be short? That’s the way God made me, so what could I do? Let’s see, I could wear heels, I could tease my hair, and maybe on a good day I could be 5’1″. But the bottom line is, I’m 4’11″ and that’s the way I was put together. And that’s what I believe about homosexuals.

“And I love, love that this has become a purpose in my life. It’s one that I didn’t ever expect,” she added.

Even when straddling the line has cost her.

When Chenoweth was named a spokeswoman in 2005 for a Women of Faith concert in Oklahoma City, promoters demanded her resignation upon learning about her pro-gay stance through an appearance on “The 700 Club,” which, ironically, upset many of her gay fans. When Chenoweth refused to step down, Women of Faith fired her. Chenoweth told The Advocate it was the saddest moment in her professional life.

And last year, after calling Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh’s column about whether gay actors can play straight “horrendously homophobic,” Chenoweth received an online backlash from some disappointed fans.

But she hasn’t let any of it slow her down. With her fourth album, “Some Lessons Learned,” due out Sept. 13 and a new show on the horizon, ABC’s “Good Christian Belles,” Chenoweth plans to keep walking her talk. She’s already discussed with “Belles” creator Robert Harling having her character reflect her own personal struggles.

“There are always people of faith that battle this and think that it’s wrong. I’ve struggled with that. You might see that on the show,” she said. “It makes me happy.”

Avid runner Reese Witherspoon is recovering at home after she was struck by a car while jogging in Santa Monica Wednesday morning.

The 35-year-old Oscar-winning actress “suffered minor injuries,” according to The Associated Press, when she was struck running across an unmarked crosswalk around 11 a.m. Wednesday.

US Weekly reported that she received a quarter-size gash on her forehead and was transported to a local hospital, where she was treated and released a short time later. She spent the night at her Brentwood home, recovering from the accident.

The driver of the car, an 84-year-old woman, was traveling at about 20 mph and was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

A witness to the accident told Us Weekly: “The driver seemed to have not seen her because of a large tree at the intersection. … [Reese] was lucky, because it could have been much more serious.”

But will this incident slow down exercise enthusiast Witherspoon?

“I hope so,” Us Weekly’s senior online editor Justin Ravitz told ABCNews.com. She should “at least take the day off.”

The “Walk the Line” actress reportedly runs about three miles a day, has been known to take intense spin classes and is a fan of yoga.

“One of her favorite things to do is running with her girlfriends,” Ravitz said. “She can exercise and catch up at the same time.”

Before Witherspoon’s March wedding to CAA agent Jim Toth, she seemed to have upped her exercise routine. Earlier that month, she was snapped looking exhausted while leaving an exclusive Los Angeles gym, where she presumably took a Physique 57 class. A new Hollywood fad, Physique 57 pairs isometric exercises with orthopedic stretches to tone muscles and improve posture.

The next day, Witherspoon was at it again, this time jogging around her Brentwood neighborhood with a friend.

Wedded bliss has hardly softened Witherspoon.

If anything, she has found a kindred spirit in Toth, 41, who is frequently seen running with her. “She’s in love again. She’s starting a new life and she probably wants to stay sexy for her man,” Ravitz said.

Witherspoon also seems less shy about revealing her supertoned body. Recently, she wore a bikini so skimpy you could see her tattoo. “She’s really been showing off her body more than we’re used to seeing in the past,” Ravitz said.

In a recent interview with Marie Claire, Witherspoon opened up about the emotional weight that has been lifted from her since marrying Toth.

“I feel so much relief. I don’t think I recognized how anxious I was about being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It’s not easy on anybody,” she said.

Ravitz believes her exercise is “one of ways she stays sane. It’s part of who she is.”